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More on The Teenagers

In my column this week, I talk to Quentin Delafon, lead singer for loveable assholes the Teenagers, who make their US debut tomorrow night at Neumo’s, with the Pharmacy and, um, some DJs. Of course, not everything fit in the column. Here’s some stuff that got cut:

Delafon on growing up on the outskirts of Paris:

It was really quiet, nothing special. You know, a scooter and a little mischief in suburbia. Nothing really crazy. It was really a nice time, and thatís why we are nostalgic about it.

Michael and Dorain were having some kind of band stuff, but nothing really going anywhere. I wasnít really involved in music back then. I really liked music, but I wasnít making any myself.

Dorian and Michael have been playing bass since they were 10 or 15 or something. But there was not really a music scene there. A lot of people in our high school were listening to reggae, but weíve never really been keen on that kind of stuff. We didnít get any influence from that, for sure. Thank god.

On their live show:

[At first] we were playing with just the three of us and an iPod. But I think US standards are a bit higher, so we decided to get some people to play with us. We have a girl playing second guitar, and a nice drummer girl, as well, and we still have a laptop for some of the backing tracks.

On recording with Strokes producer Gordon Rafael but not using the results for debut album Reality Check:

In the end, we decided just to keep what we did with LEXX, because it makes more sense than to just have bits and pieces with Gordon Rafael. Working with LEXX just sounded better. LEXX really understood how we wanted everything to sound, and all four of us just worked really hard to make something we are proud of. We used a lot of the vocals from the old demos that we made with Dorian in Paris so that we could get that DIY feeling. Our demos were what got us heard in the first place, so we didnít want it to sound over-produced, because it wouldnít match.